June 5th, 2016

Shooting Camps will help you improve shooting technique, confidence, range, speed of release, accuracy, footwork, and your overall shooting percentage! Players also learn how to work at home, develop mental toughness, practice smarter, and other intangibles to become a great shooter. Age levels are separated and players progress at different rates based on skill level.

To be blunt, I was a bit shocked that our camp average ratings were so high for the shooting camps.

Any average above an 8.0 is good. An average above 8.5 is very good. Anything above a 9.0 is phenomenal. Anything above a 9.5, I’m checking to see what the coaches are putting in the water bottles.

Our average rating was a 9.08.

We had 15 spring camps. 189 surveys were filled out. And we had 126 perfect 10's

Here are a few more written reviews.

“Coach Jim was skilled, knowledgeable, inspirational and entertaining. There was never a dull moment.”

Coach Huber was fantastic, especially connecting basketball to life lessons. Focus on fundamentals, with repetition and reinforcement and progression. My son really enjoyed the experience. Coach Jim was skilled, knowledgeable, inspirational and entertaining. There was never a dull moment. I had a great time assisting in the camp and learned many useful drills to use on my teams.

Ken Cheung, Kailua, Hawaii, father of Nicholas Cheung (Rating 10 out of 10).

“No goofing off… focused on proper technique and fundamentals… (your) character trait discussions… far more valuable than the game of basketball.”

As a parent I really liked the fact that it wasn't just a camp full of goofing off, shooting around and scrimmages. It really focused on proper technique and fundamentals. I was really encouraged to see Rustin incorporate character trait discussions at the end of each day. Those things are far more valuable than the game of basketball. My son's generation and society in general could use more of this training for sure.

“I really feel the word elite should have been left off the advertising.”

The camp itself was a good camp, but I took my son who is a good shooter and wanted to see him given some tools to make him an elite shooter. I really feel the word elite should have been left off the advertising. If fundamentals are what makes a great shooter and he did get that reaffirmed from this camp, but the older more skilled players were looking for the next challenging step past that. I feel you run a good camp.... just not up to the elite part of the advertising. We're signed up for elite guard next level in St. Louis and still looking forward to that as the age level is tighter.

Erik from Springfield Shooting Camp

Joe Haefner’s Response:

Erik, first off, congratulations on helping your son develop into a good shooter. And we appreciate your honest feedback. This is extremely helpful in our continuous desire to have the most valuable camps out there. You actually bring up some great points that many other parents probably think about as well.

First, I went back and checked to see if the word elite was used on the registration pages. I could not locate it being called an “elite” shooting camp anywhere. It does say the instructor is an “elite skills coach”. We have our “Elite” Guard Camps. However, there could have been something on a flyer or with the facility advertising that I missed.

Second, with that being said, I would be okay with calling it an “Elite” shooting camp. Everything taught at that camp is what “elite” shooters do. (On a side tangent, whether you should ever use the word “elite” is another topic which I’ll address in a future email.)

Back to the topic at hand…our instructors have worked with and developed some of the best shooters in the world. The things in the camp are many of the same things that they work on.

Don Kelbick has worked with NBA players like Bruce Bowen who led the league in 3-point shooting percentage. He trained Raja Bell who is ranked 23rd all-time in 3-point shooting percentage. Both guys were undrafted by the way.

Jim Huber, our coaching & curriculum development director, has trained many great shooters. He takes the exact things he taught to them and incorporated it into the camp. Jim has trained players, NBA lottery picks, like Alec Burks & Willie Cauley-Stein. He has worked with players that have played at great programs like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, Michigan St, and many other colleges at different levels.

We use the same progressions that one of our camp directors Troy Slavin has used to train his son Nic Slavin who has developed into one of the best 3-point shooters in the Midwest at the high school level.

It’s simple, but it sure isn’t easy. It takes an enormous amount of effort and focused repetition, which very few people choose to do.

As Michael Jordan’s trainer Tim Grover once said, what makes the best players the best is that they do the basic fundamentals extremely well.

I once had a parent of a 7th grader complain that the workout I did wasn’t advanced enough. This was the same workout I just used with an Iowa State commit who played for Fred Hoiberg. And it was a workout I used as a test run to see where the kid was at. If anything, I needed to scale things back.

So don’t get caught up in doing anything fancy. Just do the basics extremely well.

Can you get into your shot a bit quicker to speed up your release? Can you explode out of triple threat into a one dribble jump shot just a bit quicker? Can you create a bit more separation when moving without the ball to give you more shooting opportunities? When driving to the basket can you have better balance and strength, so a forearm can’t slow you down?

It’s simple, but it is hard to accomplish.

I hope this helps you choose what to focus on your son’s pursuit of being a great player.